Expecting
by Blue Bongo
Summary: One night with Clark changes Chloe's life forever... Oneshot.


Expecting.

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><p>Chloe Sullivan had never liked hospitals. Seemed like every time she went into one, something bad happened either to her or to one of her friends. Take that one time she woke up in the morgue at Smallville General. She could have been traumatised by that.<p>

But now, with contractions wracking her expecting body, any discomfort on her part about being in one was just replaced with discomfort. She'd been at home, her waters had broken and… Well, she'd made the nine one one call herself. The ambulance had been prompt, the paramedic, a serious looking guy named Davis, had asked her where the father was and if he was coming.

Well, what could she have said to that? He's out doing his duty, trying to catch the criminals of Metropolis in the act. She'd left him like ten messages telling him to come for her at the hospital, but he wasn't renowned for checking his messages while on the job. She'd tried to call him again while in the ambulance, but Davis had asked her not to.

In one of the many faceless delivery rooms, two nurses had helped her out of her clothes and into one of those maternity gowns. In a few moments, she was on the bed, time all a blur. Her only thoughts were on the pain piercing her system, her as-yet unborn child struggling to get out.

"Miss Sullivan?"

It wasn't really his area of expertise, but her friend Doctor Emil Hamilton had offered to look in on her, there if she needed him. She appreciated the gesture, she'd even asked him if he could do the delivery. He had been pleasantly surprised by her request and had agreed. Oliver Queen had introduced her to the Doctor and they'd struck out quite a friendship.

"Everything's going to be okay," he said. "Trust me, I'm a doctor."

Through gritted teeth as another contraction ripped through her, Chloe managed a weak smile at him.

"If this's the most painful it gets…" she started to say. "Then…"

She didn't even want to finish the lame joke, it just didn't seem important.

"You'll get through it, don't worry," Hamilton smiled. "You're not the first woman ever to panic here, but you can get through it. Just stay with me."

"You're the doc," she grimaced. "Just get him out of me! Please!"

"The baby'll come when he or she's ready," Hamilton said, patting one of her legs. "Don't worry about it. You thought of a name yet? Deep breaths!"

"Ah… we haven't…" Chloe panted, gripping at the sides of the bed in pain. "Just… Want to get it over…"

Surprisingly amid the pain, she found her mind slipping back to the night she had really started down this road.

It's easy to look back with rose tinted glasses. Especially when the present sucks…

That was a bit harsh. At the moment, she didn't really care.

Another grip of pain. Clenching her eyes shut, Chloe tried to distract herself from it, desperate to force her mind anywhere but here.

Anywhere but here...

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><p>Nine months earlier…<p>

She hadn't really expected this to happen. For chrissakes she'd been categorically dead half a day earlier and now she'd just had the chance to live out something she'd been desperate for since high school.

She'd just had sex with Clark Kent.

They'd both been down really. He'd had his battle with the bizarro version of himself, Lana had been blown to kingdom come, Lex had drowned at the Reeves dam and nobody had seen Lionel anywhere. For her… She'd known her relationship with Jimmy was dead and finished for a while now, it just had been a case of not wanting to admit it to anyone, least of all herself.

They'd been at her place, talking and lamenting over everything that had happened over the last few days, there'd been tears on her part and Clark had been doing his best to try and comfort her. He hadn't shown it, but beneath the surface, she knew he felt just as bad as she was. At the time, she hadn't known why she'd done it, but she'd kissed him. Her lips had met his on the couch and he'd kissed her back. That had surprised her, but she hadn't stopped to ask the question. Never spoil the moment Chloe, never let it go. For one brief moment, the realisation that she'd probably regret it flashed across her mind, before being lost in the passion that she'd always secretly dreamed of. One thing had led to another and they'd left the couch to arrive in her bedroom in double quick time.

If she was really honest with herself, she knew she'd just wanted to see if she was definitely all normal again after her trip down cadaver lane. Now she'd woken up in bed with the guy who was probably now her best friend and…

Yeah. What now? Chloe found herself wondering, her eyes looking over to where the young Kryptonian still slept. All those teenage dreams about this moment felt so far away, the reality so much different. Now they'd done it, then what? Did she really want to go down this route with him? Clark was a cool friend to have, especially when people seemed to try to kill you every week, but was he really boyfriend material? It hadn't worked between him and Lana because he hadn't been able to be honest with her. If there was really something deep down bothering him, would he really confide in her?

And, given his predicament, things bothering Clark tended to be Kryptonite powered freaks, aliens from galaxies far far away and average Joes trying to make a buck from somewhere by learning his secret. He attracted danger; she didn't really want to be in that orbit.

But there was the thing. That she really did love him. The sex had been mind-blowing, it had been everything that she'd imagined, but it wasn't even about that. Because he did confide in her, more so than ever since his parents had left the picture and Pete had moved away. They connected about as much as any human and any alien ever could. And it was hard to think of him that way. Everything about him was just so human on the surface; it was how he'd fooled people for so long.

But he wasn't. What was the point pretending that he was?

Next to her he grunted, rolling over onto his back and shaking off the constraints of sleep.

"Morning," she said brightly. "Sleep well."

The look on his face was priceless as what had happened caught up with him.

"Little rough," he replied. "Keep dreaming of a strange clone of me running loose around Smallville."

"What do you think brought that on?" Chloe asked, sitting up in bed, careful to make sure she kept the cover around her chest. Not that it wasn't anything he'd seen recently, but…

"Gee, don't know," he said. "Must be… one of those things."

He looked away and rolled over onto his side, something bothering him. Looked like typical Clark, not really in the chatty mood. Which likely meant it was up to her to try and break the ice, try to scale the gawping precipice growing the few feet between them.

"Clark…" she said. "That was…"

Was what? Incredible? Life changing? Supreme? Anything she said would just seem so trivial now.

"Well on the plus side," she said lightly. "Least you know you can… you know, do that. You've come a long way since you were worried about it."

Again he rolled over, this time looking at her, his big eyes locked onto her own.

"You sure you're okay?" he asked. "No pain?" He honestly looked like he had to think about the last part.

"Clark, you blew my mind," she said, before amending what she'd said upon seeing his look of concern. "Not literally."

"Oh." He could be so adorable when he played the role of confused farmboy, when his grip on what was happening faded completely. "Good."

As an afterthought, he quickly smiled and said, "You were good too."

"No, I'm serious!" Chloe exclaimed, it all suddenly rushing out of her, his typical Clark understated-ness fuelling her fires. "Clark, that might just have been the single best night of my life. Better than anything I had with Jimmy…"

"It shouldn't have happened," he suddenly said. "It was wrong. It was good but it shouldn't have happened."

"Uh oh…" she groaned. "You're going to give me that that speech aren't you? Everything's your fault so you can't enjoy a moment of happiness."

"I enjoy…"

"Clark, living on a farm and fighting infected humans isn't living, it's existing!" she argued. "Can't you ever just take the positives from something instead of dwelling on the negatives?"

He let out a huge sigh at her words. Some of the paint on the ceiling of her bedroom started to peel under the force of his breath.

"So, you really enjoyed it?" he eventually asked. "Was I that good?"

"Sweetie, I'm not just blowing smoke when I said that," she said, laying back down next to him to hug up to him. He was stupidly warm; she'd started to get goose bumps from the chill in the air. Just as she'd always imagined he would, he wrapped one of his strong arms around her shoulder, holding her close.

She had no idea how long they had been there, but eventually they'd been broken up by Lois banging on the door, loudly complaining how it was locked and bolted. Fortunately for the two of them, she'd not caught on what they'd been doing; otherwise they'd have had to sit through twenty questions. When she'd finally been let in, Clark made an excuse to vacate the place, returning soon after with some breakfast and coffee for her. Then he'd left again, proclaiming he had chores to do on the farm. Throwing him a wink, she'd been unable to suppress the thick smile on her face until long after he'd gone.

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><p>They'd gone on a few dates after that; she knew that they were only fooling themselves that they'd ever become a couple. They hadn't had sex again, as much as Chloe had wanted to, but after wanting it for so long, she was just happy to finally be with the man of her dreams.<p>

Then the moment of truth had arrived a few weeks later when she'd been late. One pregnancy test later and what she suspected was confirmed.

To his credit… and a more cynical woman might have said this was the first real time he hadn't acted like a human male… Clark had immediately promised to stand by her. He'd even proposed a week later, but she'd turned him down. Every minute since then she'd regretted it. She wanted to tell herself that he was doing it because he loved her, but she knew it was because he'd knocked her up. And she wanted to tell herself she'd turned him down because it was the wrong reason to get married, yet she knew that one day he'd rise above everyone else on the planet and become the greatest hero any of them had ever seen. She didn't want to weigh him down like a necklace of Kryptonite.

Yet it had gone on. Although he hadn't asked her to marry him again, they had kept on going as they were for the next nine months. Were they boyfriend and girlfriend? Hard to explain, if she had to put the label on it, she would probably have said so.

Still, she did harbour the hope that one day they'd have something so special between them that he'd propose not out of what the Kents had raised him to consider his duty, but out of desire. Because the morning sickness aside, they were the happiest months of her life, months she got to spend with the only person she'd ever truly wanted to be with.

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><p>Back in the present, Chloe looked down to the tiny human in her arms, half her and half Kryptonian. It had been painful, but now she looked down on the sleeping figure of Clark Junior before her, she knew it had all been totally worth it. He had his whole life ahead of him, who knew what this little boy before her would go onto achieve.<p>

Ahead of her, the door opened and there he was, clutching a massive teddy bear that was easily half the size of him. And she saw the look of hurt on Clark's face as he realised that he'd missed the moment his son was born…

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><p><strong>Author's Notes.<strong>

**Enjoy...**


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